Liberal Democratic party

Liberal Democratic party

(LDP), Japanese political party. It began as the conservative Liberal party, which, under Shigeru YoshidaYoshida, Shigeru, 1878–1967, Japanese statesman. He was until 1954 the most powerful political figure in postwar Japan. He was ambassador to Italy (1930–32) and to Great Britain (1936–39)......Click the link for more information., became the dominant political force in Japan following World War II. In 1955 the Liberals merged with the newly created Democratic party. Retaining control of the Japanese government for 38 years, the LDP supported Japan's alliance with the United States and fostered close links between Japanese business and government. Following charges of corruption in Prime Minister Kiichi MiyazawaMiyazawa, Kiichi, 1919–2007, Japanese politician, b. Fukuyama. A member of an eminent political family, he graduated from Tokyo Univ. and served in the finance ministry during the Allied occupation......Click the link for more information.'s government, it lost its parliamentary majority in the 1993 elections, which put a coalition government in power. In spite of numerous defections by LDP members of parliament over the party's failure to enact political reform, it remained Japan's largest political party. From 1994, when the LDP returned to power, it was the senior partner in a series of coalition governments.

Ryutaro HashimotoHashimoto, Ryutaro, 1937–2006, Japanese politician, b. Tokyo, grad. Keio Univ. He entered politics in 1963, when he was elected to parliament from Okayama prefecture......Click the link for more information. became LDP leader in 1995, assuming the post of deputy prime minister in Prime Minister Tomiichi MurayamaMurayama, Tomiichi, 1924–, Japanese politician. A long-time labor union official and member of the Socialist party, he was originally elected to parliament in 1972......Click the link for more information.'s cabinet. Upon Murayama's resignation early in 1996, Hashimoto became prime minister; Keizo ObuchiObuchi, Keizo, 1937–2000, Japanese politician, prime minister of Japan (1998–2000), b. Nakanojo. The son of a silk manufacturer and politician, Obuchi graduated from Waseda Univ. in 1962 and in 1963 was elected to the parliament seat once held by his late father......Click the link for more information. succeeded Hashimoto as party leader and prime minister in 1998. When Obuchi was incapacitated by a severe stroke in 2000, Yoshiro MoriMori, Yoshiri,1937–, Japanese politician, prime minister of Japan (2000–2001), b. Neagari. Born into a political family in rural Ishikawa prefecture and educated at Waseda Univ., he was a newspaper reporter before his first election to the Diet in 1969......Click the link for more information., secretary-general of the LDP, succeeded him as prime minister, but the unpopular Mori was replaced in less than a year by Junichiro KoizumiKoizumi, Junichiro, 1942–, Japanese political leader, b. Yokosuka. From a political family, he studied economics at Keio Univ. (grad. 1967). He entered politics in 1970 as a member of the Liberal Democratic party (LDP), and two years later was elected to the Diet......Click the link for more information.. Koizumi was succeeded as party leader by Shinzo AbeAbe, Shinzo, 1954–, Japanese politician. The son and grandson of politicians (his grandfather was Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi), he served as secretary to his father and succeeded to his father's seat in the Diet in 1993......Click the link for more information. in 2006, Yasuo FukudaFukuda, Yasuo, 1936–, Japanese politician. Son of ex-prime minister (1976–78) Takeo Fukuda, he attended Waseda Univ. (grad. 1959) and worked for an oil company for 17 years......Click the link for more information. in 2007, and Taro AsoAso, Taro, 1940–, Japanese politician, prime minister of Japan (2008–9). Grandson of Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida and son of a successful industrialist, he attended Gakushuin Univ. (grad. 1963), Stanford, and the Univ. of London......Click the link for more information. in 2008. In 2009 the LDP's long dominance of postwar Japanese politics ended when the Japan Democratic party won the elections in a landslide and displaced the LDP as the largest party in the Diet. Aso resigned as party leader and was succeeded by Sadakazu Tanigaki, a former finance minister. Shinzo Abe was elected as party leader in 2012. The LDP subsequently won (Dec., 2012) a landslide victory and, Abe became prime minister; early elections two years later continued Abe's mandate.

Bibliography

See E. S. Krauss and R. J. Pekkanen, The Rise and Fall of Japan's LDP (2010).

Liberal Democratic Party

(LDP; Jiyu Minshuto), a political party of Japan expressing the interests of big capital, the rural bourgeoisie, and the privileged bureaucracy.

The Liberal Democratic Party was established in November 1955 through the merger of the Liberal and Democratic parties. Because of its majority in parliament, the LDP has formed the one-party government of Japan since the moment it was constituted. The domestic policies of the LDP include the placing of limitations on the democratic freedoms of the workers, reconsideration of the constitution (particularly its ninth article, which proclaims Japan’s renunciation of war and the maintenance of armed forces), remilitarization of the country, and cultivation of nationalistic ideology. A cornerstone of the foreign policy line of the LDP is the continuation of Japan’s military and political alliance with the USA. In the early 1970’s the party began to develop relations with the USSR and other socialist countries. The main foreign-policy goal of the LDP is to elevate Japan’s political influence to a level commensurate with its increased economic potential.

The party is structured to meet the needs of parliamentary struggle. LDP sections in cities and prefectures serve basically only as organs for staging election campaigns. The congress is formally considered to be the highest body of the party, but in fact all power is concentrated in the hands of the party leadership. Takeo Miki became the president of the party in December 1974, simultaneously occupying the post of prime minister of the country. The LDP’s press organ is the newspaper Jiyu Minshu.

Along with the 10 seats won by their coalition partners, a small Buddhist party, the result is enough to give the Liberal Democratic Party control of the 242 seat house, and puts it in charge of both houses of parliament for the first time since 2007.

The European Liberal Democratic Party, gathered for a Congress in Brussels on April 29-30, is more determined than ever to carry its weight on the European political stage, with its parliamentary emanation, the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Group (ELDR), in the process of welcoming in dissident EPP members in the run-up to European elections on June 10-13.

The government and the ruling camp should conduct economic policies more carefully following the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) decision Friday to end its zero-interest-rate policy, a top Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) official said Friday.

The effects of the aid on the Malaysian economy will greatly differ depending on whether it is provided promptly or not, the minister said during talks in Kuala Lumpur with Koichi Kato, former secretary general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Speaking at a news conference staged by the right-wing political faction the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) recently in Moscow, Sorokin said, ``There's an opportunity to increase the budget.

Finally comes a chapter on Japan since 1945, which deals mostly with the political and economic reforms of the Occupation era, the collapse of the Liberal Democratic Party in the summer of 1993 and the continuing problems of the Japanese state and people in finding a modus vivendi with the "alien cultures" (p.

With support from other MPs, including a former commando officer now in the ruling Liberal Democratic party, I enlisted 388 Diet members from all the parties--over half the Japanese Diet--to petition the prime minister for a total ban.

The Tokyo Shimbun newspaper implied that SBI Holdings, Inc ("SBI"), using a group investment fund, intended to provide funds to a Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) politician by purchasing shares in a politician's Internet business company.

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